#also my friend wasn't allowed to communicate with me during the trial but we were in the same room during it on our laptops irl

[bayonettas-tits]

Thinking about how when I was twelve, I was put in a mock court trial over being allowed to remain on a Warriors/Homestuck Minecraft roleplay server with my irl friend acting as my lawyer, due to being a bit of a shithead on there.

I somehow won it.

[aldrichibasco]

My semester break was really fun and relaxing. Some people spent this time relieving their stress from their academic work and having a fun vacation. It is one of the most anticipated parts of students' lives because this is one of the most anticipated vacations. Students most likely of our age really crave a vacation, especially those who are really stressed-out during the school days. We are always expecting vacation because we think that we need to have a break, and it is a time for them to relax, hang out, go on a swimming vacation, and engage in other exciting activities with their families. They can do whatever they want and go wherever they want.

Developing a regular sleep schedule was critical to my general wellbeing during the break. I made getting enough sleep a priority, so I stuck to a routine of going to bed at 11 PM, waking up at 9 AM, and taking a short nap from 2 PM to 3 PM. I was full of energy after this routine and eager to take it on each day.

I spent most of the days of my break in our house. I wasn't able to go somewhere else. This is because I'm not allowed to travel around or go around places, so I mostly spent my time with my family, watching movies to keep me busy. I just stayed at our house and enjoyed surfing the internet to communicate with my friends; browsing on Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok; and I also watched movies on Netflix and YouTube videos that kept me entertained during the break. I really enjoyed it because we were free from our stressful schoolwork, activities, projects, and even our assignments. And I also had longer hours of sleep.

On the second day of our short vacation, my family visited our home to spend time with us. At that, short time, my parents drove my cousins and me to the mall, where we went to a few different places to buy food that we could not stop eating and watched a really good movie that we all enjoyed. Every time, we laughed together and embarked on a culinary adventure. Seeing our family again is so fun, even though I will really miss them. But two days later, they went back to their village, or residence. We don't often get to see them or come here to our house because they only visit us on very special occasions.

When January 28 came, we went to church and prayed for my cousin in heaven and abso for my grandpa. Thereafter, we immediately went to the cemetery with my family and cleaned the tombs of my grandfather and cousin because it was my cousin's birthday. We also bought some flowers and candles for them. We stayed there all day, bonding with each other, eating, singing, playing, and much more. We went back home at 6:00 in the evening, and my relatives also went back to their own towns or homes. I also went back to my routine again.

During my free time, I had the pleasure of engaging in social activities with my friends. It was a series (of delightful outings where we explored various locations, including the bustling mall, the renowned fast-food establishment known as Jollibee, as well as the comfort of our own homes. These cherished moments were embedded in my memory as a time filled with unadulterated happiness, devoid of the familiar anxiety associated with my academic endeavors. In recent times, I have unexpectedly found myself spending a significant amount of my free time engaging in the pursuit of video games. This seemingly trivial pastime has, however, bestowed upon me a valuable lesson in autonomy and self-sufficiency. The virtual realms I navigate within have presented me with countless trials and obstructions, allowing me to grasp the essence of perseverance and independence.

As my break was coming to an end, I noticed that I was thinking back on the development and lessons I had learned. I came to see how crucial it is to grow continuously and learn from your mistakes. My motto has changed throughout time, from "I learned from my mistakes, so I decided to make more" to "I do make mistakes, but I never repeat them." This change in perspective represents my dedication to developing personally and taking lessons from every event life has to offer.

And that's how I used my break from school. I gave thanks to God for my semester off. For me, it was delightful, fun, and memorable. I'm hopeful that the upcoming breaks will be more productive, pleasurable, and demanding. It has taught me to make prudent use of vacation time.

We have to use our time generously and wisely. Vacation is a time to relax after a stressful school day, especially when you feel a lot of pressure during the day. You could also use vacations to talk to vour friends abroad, or, let's say, your friends from a different country, or even those friends of yours near your house, but you can't meet each other. That's what I actually did during the break. I had video chats with my friend from Canada and my friend from the US; that was really fun, though. Indeed, during that period, my interactions with my friends were a source of pure bliss. These cherished moments allowed me to momentarily escape the rigors of academia and bask in the simple joys of camaraderie and shared happiness, also by taking on these virtual adventures on my own, I have witnessed firsthand the triumph that can be attained through personal perseverance and self-reliance.

This has extended beyond the realm of virtual reality, permeating into my daily life, where I now approach challenges with a greater sense of independence and self-assurance. In this unexpected manner, playing video games has provided me with an invaluable lesson in navigating the complexities of life.

[donnabroadway]

Meghan Markle is a white mama biracial

There I said it, since we've been tip toing around it by whispering that she doesn't have any black friends, I will just say it. This is a woman who was allegedly raised by two black woman in a black section of Los Angeles and she has no connection to the black community. Don't get me wrong, Meghan has never denied having a black mother but she's never ever said she was black and that should be noted. I know in the past, biracials were only allowed to claim one said, more than likely the black side due to phenetics, racism, and societal norms, but not having connection to one side is a choice. And let me say this, biracials were not counted as white until white women started having and raising children with men of color and there became pressure for them to embrace their whiteness and be counted as white, like their mothers. Despite having a black mother, Meghan Markle is not black, she is biracial and she should be counted as such.

In the late 90s when Tiger Woods began to hit his stride, people would talk about how he was the first black to do this or that and he did an interview basically distancing himself from the black community. He called himself "cablinasian" and pretty much said he wasn't black. He has a black father, not racially ambiguous but very phenotypically black, and an Asian mother but he made sure to tell us the "ca" for Caucasian came first. That tells us all we need to know. OJ is once alleged to have said "I'm not black, I'm OJ" when asked about distancing himself from the civil rights movement happening during his career but he allegedly became very black after his 1994 trial where black people supported him, so much so he began spending a lot of time in black neighborhoods and eating black culinary staples like chicken and waffles. Meghan Markle has also described herself as a woman of color, person of color, and biracial but never as black despite being raised by two black woman in a predominantly black neighborhood. Before anyone says anything, I am a monoracial black woman, raised by two black people, raised in predominantly black spaces so I would never negate anyone's experience or tell anyone what to identify themselves as, not my place but choosing to live, work, play, and love as one race over the other is a choice and it was made by Doria. You mean to tell me that this black woman, with locs, a black mama, and black family never made sure her daughter had the black experience. She never connected her daughter with anyone black besides herself and her mother. That's a choice. I'm not saying she has to negate her black side but there are children born to white mothers, raised in white spaces, adopted and raised by two white parents that have more of a connection to the black community and connection to the community is the job of the parent from that community. Doria's job was to connect her with the black community and I'm willing to bet that Doria isn't that connected to the black community herself.

In the five years that Meghan Markle has been a well known public figure, not one aunt, uncle, cousin, friend, God mother, God father God sister/brother, play auntie, play uncle, cousin, family friend of color has come to surface. The only black person that was tied to Meghan was her mother. So a black woman has a wedding and no one black was there except some celebrities and people she knew once she became famous but all of her childhood and long term friends are white? Ok, got it. I understand she feels comfortable in white spaces but this was a choice made by her mother and continued by Meghan. I know people who grew up in predominantly white spaces and made the choice to seek out their blackness by finding black friends, going into black spaces, and exploring what blackness means to them. The fact that Meghan can't call herself a black woman despite being raised by two of them says a lot. I know Meghan is white presenting, racially ambiguous, biracial and I'm not taking away from that but she can be a black woman and a white woman at the same time.

If Mariah Carey who also presents white can live in both spaces, if Halle Berry who presents black but has a white mother can live in black and white spaces without negating either side, if Barack Obama who was raised white in white spaces but understood he had some blackness can embrace his blackness without rejecting his white mother, so can Meghan Markle but she chooses not to. Meghan Markle is not a black woman and black people should stop capping so hard for her. I get it, her mother looks like us and it's exciting to have someone who is one of us in such a high position, but this is a woman who chose not to raise her daughter as a black woman, she raised her to be post racial and racially ambiguous. She could have taught Meghan about race and what it means to be a black woman and about her black heritage without negating her whiteness and making her feel like she has to choose but she didn't, which I don't understand but it's not my choice to understand. No one could have predicted that Meghan would become a Duchess and experience this level of fame and scrutiny but we could have predicted that race and her blackness and standing as a black woman would have come up at least once. The fact that this was not even a personal question until the British press made it a talking point, is interesting, to say the least. Doria is in her late 60s, she was born to two black parents, has two black siblings, and was raised in black spaces yet Meghan doesn't have a relationship with any of them. Meghan should at least have one cousin and one auntie or uncle, we all have that one we're cool with even if we're not cool with anyone else in the family and yet she has none. It is weird. I'm not saying embrace black over white but not to embrace black at all to have no close black friends, family members, or associates is disconcerting.

[a-dowryofblood]

GIVE ME UR MASTERCLASS ON THIS SITUATION PLS IM STILL CONFUSED

Oh haha. I spent like over an hour breaking it down for my friends the other day. I'll give you the summary.

Olivia Wilde was making the movie, things were fine. We find out Shia dropped out mid rehearsals and Harry Styles gets hired to replace him. During production Harry and Olivia get together as she was splitting from her ex (this a while different mess but it also gets tangled in there because he did serve her the custody papers mid convention while she was promoting dwd but it's all about her kids and personal life so that's non of our business, things have been said but overall is best if we keep ourselves of it)

Filming is done and Olivia and Harry are spotted. Till this point people were happy and excited to see the movie but if you need to know ANYTHING from the Harry Styles fandom is that at any point that he gets a girlfriend they will hate her. They will go through her entire history and find any reason to haye her, they even accused her of grooming grown adult Harry Styles.

There they started conspiracy about the relationship, it's pr, Olivia is a predator, she's a bad mom, etc. They would film her dancing in concerts and mock her calling her names.

They started circulating rumours that Olivia was so in love with Harry she stopped being the director of the film and Florence Pugh took over, then it was that Florence was getting paid half as much as Harry, etc. All of those have either been proven false or are unconfirmed. The tension is building with the movie being surrounded by this discussion.

Florence does an interview saying she hates the attention that's being placed on the sex scenes in the movie and not the contents of the movie itself. People connect dots that she secretly hates Olivia Wilde and it's piling on even more with all the other rumours.

Olivia does an interview she praises Florence says something about how she fired Shia, that there are no assholes allowed on her set, all stuff around that tone. Shia Labeouf leaks a video and other communications that prove that he left the project and was never fired. In the video Olivia Wilde says that she's trying to see both sides and that she thinks Shia and Florence can workout their issues and says 'this can be a wake-up call for miss flo'

The internet blows it up, they're now saying Florence Pugh was uncomfortable with Shia on set. He is a known abuser (he even has a trial coming up), he is also known to be method and being hard to work with on set. So know people think Olivia Wilde is being condescending, an abuse enabler and letting Florence Pugh be abused on set.

Fast forward to the mess that was the venice film festival there's all this drama already around this movie. People are talking about conspiracies that Florence is lying so she doesn't have to do press, because she's filming Dune right now she showed up minutes after the press conference had started (something that we already knew was going to happen), she goes through the red carpet with all of the cast. She goes to the premiere is there for the standing ovation (she even applauded at Olivia but people want to pretend that didn't happen). Anyway Florence leaves immediately after to go back to filming so she doesn't do any press for the film.

There's also the more recent leak of the texts between Shia Labeouf and Florence Pugh. Florence missed the initial rehearsal for personal reasons (again not my business to talk about), Shia and her had a facetime call about it, he then told her he was leaving because he didn't like rehearsals (also Shia and Florence didn't even meet in person ever) So Florence and Shia didn't have any other issues other than the scheduling of the rehearsals. (This is leak came from a "close friend" of Shia to prove Shia wasn't combative during set.)

Anyway there's a lot of people just wanting so much drama, there's speculation of tension because Harry Styles dating Olivia. The other actors not liking Harry or being annoyed by him, theres the everyone hates eachother secretly, etc. That's why everything is so extreme right now like people actually believing Harry Styles spit on Chris Pine in front of cameras like pls 😂

Basically that's the summary, I honestly think it's mostly people wanting to watch this be a fire storm specially since it also has to do with WB Discovery being broke and this being one of the 2 movies they can release this year. There's a lot of smaller stuff that's happened in between that include dissecting Chris Pine interviews for clues he secretly hates Olivia, or the Harry Styles quote about queer sex, florence not posting some trailers or reposting an story by Olivia, etc.

I hope this made some sense. There's so much more I could say but I think this gets kind of everything across. And my stance is I'm so tired of how much misogyny theres been in this discussion from the start :/

(sorry for all the potential typos and mistakes. I don't have it in myself to re read and check this)